Circleslide

Christmas Carols, Christmas Tunes, Holiday Music…like a magical switch that activates the ‘official’ beginning of the season…once I hear a really familiar Christmas Song on the radio…I realize that it’s that time of the year again.

More so than the decorations, fruitcake, or stores converted into Sacred Halls of Buying and Spending, or even the occasional Mall Santa…If I hear brenda lee singing ‘jingle bell rock’, or the ‘dance of the sugarplum fairy’ from the ‘nutcraker suite’, or ‘christmas wrapping’ by the waitresses…I’m immediately transported into the ‘christmas’ state of mind…snow or no snow…

So, my fellow bandmates and I thought we’d share what our favorite Christmas Tunes are…feel free to keep this going in the comments section…you never know when we’ll get the inkling to record some of these.

Eric: “Lib and I both like Seven Day Jesus’s version of “O Holy Night”.  It is an amazing arrangement that comes out like a passionate worship song more than a “Christmas” song.  I’ve done an arrangement of “the little drummer boy” that is really cool as well.  (pretty much play it with almost no drums, just focusing on the words.  If you get rid of the pa rump a pum pum’s the words are really powerful.”

Lee: ” I’d really have to say dave matthews band’s ‘christmas song’ just because of how unique it is… I just really, really like that. As far as christmas carols…“Silent Night” has always felt like the most reverent of them all to me. Not just that, but it  always just seems to strike that familiar chord as far as my childhood memories go,  here in Indiana, being with family, holding candles, and all of that…

Jonathan: “It’s always been a dream of mine to go visit Israel… walk where Jesus walked…see for myself all the places I’d read about.  I guess, for that reason, “O little Town of Bethlehem” really is my favorite…and no one sings it better than my man, Nat King Cole. Too bad we don’t need fireplaces down here in Corpus Christi…or else I’d roast some chestnuts and crank that thing up, right now.”

Gabe: “I love songs of good cheer…i’m a jolly person, usually, on the outside…but inside, it’s all melancholy and woeful blues. For me, my favorite is a true christmas ‘blues’ song…full of hope, theology, sadness and wonder: ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel’…and Sufjan Stevens performs a haunting version on his Songs For Christmas Album.”

So there you go…those are our faves…let’s all get together and go caroling sometime.

-gabe

back on november 7th, something happened that really wrecked me.

I was in a hotel lobby in san antonio, working on my macbook, finishing up some details before the show, when i did something very stupid and incredibly illogical, i carried my open macbook on my palm, like a waiter carries a tray of food. I was in a hurry to print a few things…when i walked to the business room i saw that the printer was being used, and in my haste i did a kind of ’spin’ move…and you know the rest. The computer wobbled, i lost control, and it fell to the cement floor…bouncing a few times…each time, a punch to my stomach.

the now closed computer rested upside down on the floor. I picked it up, and walked to a chair in the lobby…i was sitting there, knowing that when i flipped the screen, i would not be happy…but i breathed a prayer, and opened it anyway. A kaleidoscope of black and blues flickered in front of me like stained glass…only much less inspiring.

my screen was beyond damaged…and i felt sick. This year began with a broken down van, and so this feeling was familiar to me…helplessness. Like the van, here was  a tool that i had taken for granted, but one so essential to my job, that to be without it, was inconceivable to me…but Life, and the show, had to go on…so we took the stage at Godstock.

But like a bad report card in your back pocket that you know you HAVE to show your parents…I knew there was a painful reality waiting for me as I went home.

This was all very frustrating and yet, in the time that i didn’t have my mac…i instead spent it praying, interceding, and talking with God about all of this and so much more.  He knew my financial situation. He knew there was no way I could replace or even repair this thing…the budget had gotten rather tight.

And so rather than wasting time on ‘youtube’ or ‘rottentomatoes’ or ‘facebook’ or ‘hulu’…I buried my face in God’s word…and the more i did, the more  i found myself hungry for it. I was thirsty for true water…and I began to realize how spiritually dehydrated I really was.

Later, we performed a concert at a place called, of all things, ‘the miracle center’. Afterwards, i met a couple as I left the stage…some friends from a long, long time ago.

we spoke for literally 10 seconds, I shook their hands…as I was rushed by the church staff to our merch table to sign autographs.

they got a hold of my dad, somehow, and told him they wanted to buy me a new guitar…and that it would be available sometime in february.

I was very excited, as you can imagine, and then an idea popped into my head…i mentioned to my dad that more than a new guitar, i really, really needed a new computer.

weeks went by, and i forgot about this offer…but a couple of days ago my dad relayed the message to these amazing people and when they heard i was in need of a new computer, they told him that i should email them, and that they would buy me a new computer right away.

that was yesterday.

i just got back from the store and picked  up a new macbook…the one I’m using right now to type these words. It’s a miracle…that’s all I can say.

i was able to transfer all my backed up files…and so all my songs, emails, documents…are right here…as if i’d never busted my other mac.

This shows me God’s faithfulness in such a powerful way…and encourages me so much, i can’t even put it into words…

I’m so glad to be ‘plugged’ in again…i really am…and yet…I’m so grateful for this ‘break’ i’ve had. I’ve been fed, and i’m hungry for more…I’ve been reminded of the words of Christ when He said, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

amen to that…

gabe

One question that is commonly and frequently asked of musicians is ‘who inspired you to get involved with music?’
Most of the time, the answer is usually a parent, or a teacher, and that is certainly the case with me. I feel, however, unusually blessed to have been inspired by a host of others…friends…friends who took the time to nurture and pour into my life in ways I could never fully pay back.

One such friend is John Ray. He and his amazing wife, Jane, like beautiful tapestries are intertwined and connected with some of my best memories.

Last week, I was going to drop John an email, or a call, as I watched Ken Burn’s documentary on our National Parks. As the camera panned over the Rocky Mountains, I remember John and I camping there for a few weeks. He and I would stupidly try to scale heights and mountain walls without proper gear, rope, or common sense. On one occasion, he had to climb back down to get me ‘unstuck’ from a position where I couldn’t go up or back down…about a hundred feet in the air…and so, when we reached the top, I exalted in the glorious view with a healthy sense of humility…and fear.

A fellow Texan, we would trade off driving, as we criss-crossed the nation in vans full of missionary students. Name that tune was a common past time, as well as stopping to investigate the beauty of nature that, too often, I now simply pass by.

In Texas we marveled at ‘enchanted rock’…in Memphis we cleaned out a house where cockroaches covered the walls like shiny, black wall paper…across the ocean, in Minsk, Belarus…we, like pilgrims of a new age, celebrated thanksgiving dinner with our translators…and laughed in dismay as ‘cranberry sauce’ and ‘stuffing’ were just a couple of the things that our Belarusian friends found infuriating about us…and in St. Petersburg, after the wildest train ride I’ve ever had, we both marveled at the majesty of St. Isaac’s cathedral, and the wonders inside the hermitage museum.

We became strong friends, in spite of the fact that he was 10 years my senior…he was a mentor, pushing me to make better choices as a musician, to trust my gut, to work with others in a musical setting. His wife, Jane, an accomplished artist, collaborated with me on the artwork for my first CD (through these thorns). She also drove Debbie to pick me up at the airport in Tulsa…John and I were working in El Paso together, and the meal the four of us shared could be considered one of our first ‘real’ dates, and I’m sure Jane and John got a kick out of watching our awkwardness that night…for I was in love, and all through the El Paso trip, I pestered John for advice.

Through the years, John has championed my musical journey even as he and Jane raised their four beautiful daughters, Hope, Hannah, Naomi, and Olivia to be lovers of God’s wild, exciting and sometimes dangerous plan.

Maybe you will understand, then, why it is that there is a darkness, a sadness, spear-like, puncturing my heart as I try to wrap my head around the fact that Saturday, 10 year old Olivia Ray…who in August had danced at our concert, wore her circleslide bag with pride as she helped us tear down our gear that night…Saturday she was hit by an SUV as she crossed the street, in a crosswalk, after attending a children’s athletic event…later she succumbed to internal bleeding and died.

Deb and I will drive to Arkansas, to be with our friends at the memorial service. We will try and offer comfort, we will try and understand how this fits into God’s design…but who knows if either will be found this side of eternity?…neither comfort or understanding seem to be very close right now.

If you know the Ray family, you know their spirit and their faith are strong…but it’s a sad overcast day here in Nashville…and my heart is flying over the scenery of happier times…and the world seems a bit emptier today.

-gabe